


Final Girl

by kitsunealyc



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-27
Updated: 2014-02-27
Packaged: 2018-01-10 10:17:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1158445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitsunealyc/pseuds/kitsunealyc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hermione makes her choice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Final Girl

**Author's Note:**

> This is an old fic that I'm posting here for completeness' sake.

Hermione Granger was running. Branches slashed across her face, roots rose up to trip her, trees appeared suddenly from the mist, forcing her to scramble out of the way. The Forbidden Forest had never been so forbidding. She could hear Voldemort stalking behind her, hissing orders to his Death Eaters that she was _his_ to take care of – the last of the Order still standing. The last symbol of resistance.

She toppled to the ground as yet another tree root caught at her. She struggled to rise, but a sharp pain shot up her leg. She cried out in spite of herself. A hiss came from the trees behind her as Voldemort heard her and began closing in. She grabbed a sturdy length of deadwood for support, forcing herself to continue in spite of the pain.

It was hard to run with her twisted ankle, even harder to do so quietly. She crested a rise that was hollowed out underneath--a huge tree root lipping over a tiny pocket of darkness. She scurried into the hollow, gulping air and sobs. She couldn’t do this anymore. She couldn’t even see the point. She had no wand, she was wounded, and all her friends…

 _Dead. They’re all dead._ Voldemort had won. The final gamble, the attempted destruction of the final horcrux, was their final mistake. Voldemort was unkillable. He was coming after her, and the only weapon she had was a stick she’d picked up off the forest floor.

She could hear him shuffling somewhere above her, and she crouched back further into the darkness. Closing her eyes, she huddled in on herself and prayed he wouldn’t see her, wouldn’t hear her, wouldn’t sense her.

Slowly, she felt something else join her in the darkness. It started as a tingle up her spine, but quickly expanded until the darkness around her purred with it. It was power--raw power, vast and frightening in its potential. It brushed against her like a cat recognizing a cat-friend, like her beloved Crookshanks. It wanted her, was hers for the taking if she chose it. The power was tinged with darkness, but also held light. So much light. It seemed to flood the forest, lighting it for her eyes alone. She didn’t know the source of the power, and all the caution that had been drilled into her throughout her years at Hogwarts came to the fore. Cats had teeth and claws, and this power was a stalking tiger, not a fluffy lap cat. Accepting this anonymous gift might be more dangerous, more deadly, than anything Voldemort would do to her. She dithered for a moment, until a voice spoke through the power. A girl's voice. No. A _woman's_ voice.

_Make your choice. Are you ready to be strong?_

Features settling into grim determination, Hermione reached out with her soul to embrace the potential power. It flooded through her, lifting her, healing her, steadying her. Leaves crackled above her, Voldemort's bare foot treading the mulch carpet of the forest. The purr of power coursing through her flattened to a feral growl.

With new strength and purpose, Hermione tightened her grip around her makeshift wooden weapon and stepped out of the hollow to face her nemesis. Couldn't be killed? She'd like to see how he managed without a head. She was about to make him very, very sorry that he’d killed her friends.

**Author's Note:**

> Author’s Note: The Final Girl is a horror movie trope first identified by Carol Clover in _Men, Women and Chainsaws_. In horror movies she is often the focal character, the last one standing who finds the courage/strength to confront the killer, and usually the only survivor to pass on the story. Famous Final Girls include Nancy Thompson, Laurie Strode, Ellen Ripley and Sidney Prescott.


End file.
